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sol•i•dar•i•ty e•con•o•my

1. An alternative economic system based around institutions—from food co-ops to community-owned renewables—that make decisions democratically, meet local needs and put people and planet over profit

“There is no blueprint. We’ve had two blueprint disasters in the past 50 years: centralized socialism and corporate capitalism. We need something different.” —Filipino sociologist Walden Bello, speaking at the 2002 World Social Forum in Brazil

What Sorts of Institutions?

There’s quite a list—turns out there’s no One Easy Trick to building an entire parallel economy. Just for starters: Worker cooperatives; community land trusts for green affordable housing; neighborhood vegetable gardens; free health clinics; barter networks and time banks; participatory budgeting, in which communities democratically determine local spending priorities; and more.

Do We Really Need a New Economy?

It’s hard to look at rising inequality and rising temperatures, shrug one’s shoulders, and say the present economy is fine as it is. But it’s one thing to critique the old, and another to actually build something new. Reformists see solidarity economy efforts as a way to “fix” capitalism; for some socialists, they’re a stopgap to help people get by until the Left seizes the state. But some enthusiasts see the solidarity economy as both the means and the end: a bottom-up, fully functioning economy outside of capitalism, eventually replacing it entirely.

So, Does It Work?

Plenty of individual worker co-ops (around 300 in the U.S.), community gardens and other solidarity economy institutions are flourishing. Many, too, struggle to take off in the capitalist marketplace—traditional funding sources aren’t always too enthused about the whole “people and planet over profit” thing. But various organizations are experimenting with alternative finance methods, and groups like the New Economy Coalition are trying to link these scattered efforts into a larger, more resilient movement. Nowhere has this vision been fully realized, but advocates from Jackson, Miss., to Cleveland to Barcelona are making progress.

As Goes Jackson, So Goes the World?

Well, only sort of. But the idea isn’t to export one city’s model and create Jackson clones across the planet. After all, the term “solidarity economy” originated decades ago in Latin America, and economies built around mutual aid far predate capitalism. Different communities live in different social and ecological contexts, and when given the chance to operate democratically, will come to different conclusions. What solidarity economy advocates want, then, is not a cookie-cutter utopia, but the grassroots construction of a million new societies in the hell of the old.

Abstract economic models excluding the other two dimensions of that triple helix will predictably flounder; they cannot in any timely fashion create sustainable communities without simultaneously & sufficiently addressing all three.

Adam Smith was a professor of morals; his Wealth of Nations committed a terrible error: it assumed existing moral structures would govern capital. Now, we know. Capital governs morals. It governs the morals of every capitalist, and of most wannabes. And any consumer of goods who does not know he or she is already a capitalist, is a sad thing to behold.

Capital is an abstraction. Putting faith in abstractions is condemned when it is called religion, but not when it is called economics.

These three major characters - politics, economics, and spiritual well being - are not easy powers to re-unite. Yes, re-unite. All their old unities have already faded; and all that remains are fragments and figments. We can learn some from studying their former unities; but we cannot simply resurrect them in place for ourselves. Yes, there is still a city called Rome. Few believe it is now a global empire, though the roman christians ('catholics') still believe it is.

We either evolve into some common sense about the characteristics of our overall well-being, or we continue evolving into ever-more-extreme and individually-isolating individualisms. Yes, only the plural works for individualisms, because there are no more pairings, or groupings that we can work with. And insofar as we are individuals, we are so unique that no one, not even ourselves, can fully understand us.

We evolve as individuals back into some form of community that includes pieces of economic re-creation, or our communities continue dissipating. We evolve into spiritual health working with others seeking spiritual health, or we spiritually dissipate ourselves. We join with others to re-create political health - neighborhoods & towns first; or we chase rainbows. Political prudence & other well-being is no more easy than it is popular. Ditto for spiritual & economic well-being.

Yes, I support Sanders and socialist democratic as well as anarcho-syndicalist efforts. I also grow a large garden. I also spend slow hours listening to neighbors. Will I persuade any of them to support Sanders or any other socialist? Why should that even be a priority until we are working together to maintain our homes, to feed ourselves, and to keep ourselves clothed?

Unless we have a garden (I do), then we are unlikely to have more than a vague sense of what food consists of. When the un-governed market pushes us out of our homes, we discover that ignorance; or, we don't.

Beware of all the academic specialties. Plato had them wired in his original academy: anyone of them who knows how to put a sentence into a rhyme knows almost everything there is worth knowing. That is why we created science.

Now we have to deal with three major problems with science: some worship is as religion - forgetting that it not only has their preferred past, but also has a present and a future. Some worship it as the end all of everything knowable, forgetting that it course-corrects with astonishing speed. Some hate it with their entire being. None of these problems can be adequately managed for our overall well-being without community. The state will not manage it. The nation will not. No corporation will, either - for profit, not-for-profit, military, volunteer, etc.

Yes, we must listen to neighbors for quite a while before they come to believe we are actually listening; when they notice that we are listening better than they are, then we might begin finding ways of actually communicating with them, but much patience remains required. They may well be raw from excess tv ingestion.

The USA may or may not survive its current, increasingly self-destructiveness. Spending more than half our budget on known pure wastefulness is not always wise.

We need to devote all the attention and effort we can to our next best option. The US's evolving international withdrawals are noted by plenty of others. US national collapse is all but a done deal, unless an extraordinary miracle is delivered from this 2018 & the 2020 US elections.

How long will we have faith in a collapsing dollar? When a government's budget is over-extended, it is over-thrown; it is not likely to recover. Ever. And that well may be what our august bipartisan clowns have delivered us. They obviously cannot govern.

China may or may not be able to replace US with something bearable. What will we do if/when they begin landing and hiring US citizens for goons helping them collect outstanding US debts?

The 'civilized' human world has never exhausted itself of gangs. The US is so wildly civilized, we actually believe we have democracy when we vote for one gang to plunder us rather than another.

Posted by walterjessesmith on 2018-01-25 08:23:02

You gonna need a lot more than several hick cities or towns, in this country!! Time is of the essence. Best, to prep for SERIOUS solidarity of ALL workers, who are allies...ASAP.